Post by Admin on Jan 4, 2019 22:15:27 GMT
Early church leaders and many Biblical scholars today attribute the Gospel of Matthew to the tax-collector-turned-apostle Matthew. The only information about him besides his name on lists comes from this short story in Matthew, which may have been Matthew’s way of identifying himself for careful readers. Here is Matthew 9:9-13 (NIV):
9 As Jesus went on from there, he saw a man named Matthew sitting at the tax collector’s booth. “Follow me,” he told him, and Matthew got up and followed him.
10 While Jesus was having dinner at Matthew’s house, many tax collectors and sinners came and ate with him and his disciples. 11 When the Pharisees saw this, they asked his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?”
12 On hearing this, Jesus said, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. 13 But go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’ For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”
Side Note: “Tax-collector” didn’t designate anything like the good folks who work for the Internal Revenue Service today but rather named those Jews who worked for the Romans to exact a tax from their neighbors, a tax that simultaneously made the tax-collectors wealthy and supported the Roman occupation. Similarly, “sinners” doesn’t merely describe those who have fallen short of God’s ideal but rather is reserved for the worst of the worst: thieves, bandits, prostitutes, and more.
9 As Jesus went on from there, he saw a man named Matthew sitting at the tax collector’s booth. “Follow me,” he told him, and Matthew got up and followed him.
10 While Jesus was having dinner at Matthew’s house, many tax collectors and sinners came and ate with him and his disciples. 11 When the Pharisees saw this, they asked his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?”
12 On hearing this, Jesus said, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. 13 But go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’ For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”
Side Note: “Tax-collector” didn’t designate anything like the good folks who work for the Internal Revenue Service today but rather named those Jews who worked for the Romans to exact a tax from their neighbors, a tax that simultaneously made the tax-collectors wealthy and supported the Roman occupation. Similarly, “sinners” doesn’t merely describe those who have fallen short of God’s ideal but rather is reserved for the worst of the worst: thieves, bandits, prostitutes, and more.